WASHINGTON — House Republicans are chasing a new lead in their impeachment inquiry against President Joe Biden, sending official demands for information about how the Justice Department handled a federal prisoner’s requests for home confinement.
Impeachment investigators interviewed Jason Galanis last month at a federal prison in Alabama, where Galanis, who claimed to have been a business partner of Hunter Biden’s, is serving a 14-year sentence for his roles in two multimillion-dollar fraud schemes.
Galanis claimed during the interview that his request for home confinement last year had been rejected in order to prevent him from talking to Republicans searching for evidence of Joe Biden’s involvement in his son’s business deals.
“I’ve been the victim of a pattern of retribution by the Department of Justice in order to prevent my home confinement, which would have allowed full and free access to congressional investigators,” Galanis said, according to an interview transcript.
Despite the Justice Department granting Republicans’ request for an interview with Galanis and talking to him for four hours, some GOP figures still think there’s something fishy going on.
In a letter from House Judiciary Committee chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), House Oversight Committee chair James Comer (R-Ky.) and Judiciary Committee member Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), the three said they were investigating Galanis’ allegations “and will take seriously any attempt by [the Bureau of Prisons] to obstruct the Committees’ inquiry, including by retaliating against witnesses.”
The letter was sent Tuesday to the director of the BOP and the U.S. attorney’s office for the southern district of New York, which prosecuted Galanis.
The U.S. attorney’s office declined to comment. The BOP did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Galanis testimony and follow-up letter represent one of the more unusual rabbit holes Republicans have followed in their quest for…
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